No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

Exactly why I didn't even bother watching anything from this years E3. I knew it was just going to be a re-hash of last year.

But I have to say I was surprised about all the stuff Sony is doing, Nintendo even had a step up from last year.

Now only if Microsoft and EA would actually pay attention to their customers instead of shoving Mountain Dew and Doritos down our throats while showcasing the game that the entire gaming world has been waiting for, PEGGLE 2.

No, after last year it will take more than Microsoft an EA apologizing for their fuck ups.

But will these new and revolutionary games, that aren't just iterations of past releases, let us feel real emotions?

Also, maybe I never noticed it before, but all the narrations were severely uncanny. "Greetings, humans, I am a human man just like you! Let us play videogames together, and feel real excitement and emotions, because that is what humans do! Epic!"

I'm failing to see how Sony's conference was better than Microsoft's. Not going to lie, didn't think either one was spectacular, but the games shown at the MS conference were a wider range and a bit more interesting than Sony's. It was easy to tell MS was trying hard to make up for last years stupidity while Sony, to me, felt like it was phoning it in, high of last year's victory and not really caring if it did well this year or not. Nintendo, to me, felt like the only one making both a concerted effort and having fun with it.

J Tyran:No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

A massively biased opinion piece at that. I mean, reading the article I can't really tell what Microsoft did differently than Sony other than being Microsoft. They're both teasing games that are coming out this year and next. They both have some titles that are expected and some that aren't. Maybe this is supposed to be satire?

Honestly, I agree with Yahtzee's take in that E3 is a few days of media and triple A companies getting into one big circle jerk while trying to pretend that their segment of the industry isn't incredibly dysfunctional and paying the most attention to the games and companies that least need (and often least deserve given their state of development) the publicity.

The gaming world would be a much better place if E3 ceased to exist and we put this much time and energy into spot lighting the games and developers that might actually need and deserve the attention.

While I've loved what I've seen from Ubisoft (even though its starting to look a lot like Online FPS everywhere)they genuinely got me excited. And Nintendo underwhelmed me. While I'll say I'm not a huge Nintendo fan but they are just releasing sequels to a console I don't have, or don't want to purchase for sequels.

Sony's conference wasn't amazing. The speakers could really use a class on public speaking, but I enjoyed the look of the games, and it was nice to see some new stuff, even if some of the new stuff may have not been as new as it could have been if some companies just kept their mouths shut for a little bit to wait for E3. As for Microsoft and EA's presentations, I saw neither of them, and I can't say I care much about a fair amount of the games they talked about, but if you liked that kind of thing, I'm sure you probably enjoyed it more than last year. There wasn't anything truly big this year, so there's little reason to have gotten so hyped.

With Nintendo, I'll give them props for finally giving me a new look at one of the two reasons why I might actually get my own Wii U if my brother ever moved out, the lovely Xenoblade game. Also, the new Zelda looks kind of cool, I just hope the writting is better for that one than the ones I've played so far. And that about covers my feelings for E3 for me so far. It wasn't a big year, but hey, now that it's over we might see some actual news for games again instead of teases about E3.

EA's press conference was abysmal. Microsoft's wasn't a complete waste, but it was definitively better than EA's. As far as Sony and Nintendo, they were pretty good.

It's obvious EA has lost touch with their customers and is more interested in the marketing dudes' opinions and ideas than the vast majority of gamers. I've written them off a long time ago and I don't think they can redeem themselves. I have stopped counting the games I would've bought if they were on Steam. But no, corporate greed is more important than customer satisfaction in their eyes, so no thanks EA.

J Tyran:No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

A massively biased opinion piece at that. I mean, reading the article I can't really tell what Microsoft did differently than Sony other than being Microsoft. They're both teasing games that are coming out this year and next. They both have some titles that are expected and some that aren't. Maybe this is supposed to be satire?

I'm in total agreement.

Both had games I was really excited about, and games that made me just go "meh".

Acting like one or the other was somehow "a clear winner" pretty much stinks of bias or "fanboyism" as usual. (Other than, of course, last year. Christ, Microsoft...)

J Tyran:No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

klaynexas3:Sony's conference wasn't amazing. The speakers could really use a class on public speaking,

For the most part they're devs. I don't care about that, it's mostly irrelevant. If they were good speakers that would only be icing on the cake. Totally not a requirement.

As for Microsoft and EA's presentations, I saw neither of them, and I can't say I care much about a fair amount of the games they talked about, but if you liked that kind of thing, I'm sure you probably enjoyed it more than last year.

Microsoft's was better than last year, yes. But not EA's. Oh no. Don't assume if you haven't seen it.

ugh, i've read some crap articles on escapist before, (though most are good) but this one takes the cake....

your biggest gripe seems to be that they didn't open the conference with Halo... how is that treating you like an idiot? remember back when cd's were a thing, when you bought a band's new cd, were ALL THE HITS right at the beginning? noooo... they were spread out to get you to listen to the b-sides as well. and as for ONLY FOCUSING ON GAMES...

FOR FUCKS SAKE! last year, they got shit for NOT FOCUSING ENOUGH ON GAMES. people like you just want to hate, no matter what they do.

in summation: congrats for getting escapist to pay you to be a common troll.

I assume we're just forgetting the half an hour nonsense of Sony talking about boring boardroom and TV shit that everyone complained about last year then? I mean, I wish I could, but it still happened. And I'd hardly describe much of what Sony did as surprises. Grim Fandango remake? Sure. But who wasn't expecting a Little Big Planet on PS4? Suda's exclusive was revealed last year (as Lily Bergamo) and everyone already knew about Project Beast too. Oh, and The Order was Sony too, whether that's a plus or a negative. So I'd hardly describe Sony's conference as a great end. If they'd ended after 45 minutes, it would have been a great end to (in my opinion) a pretty great day all round. They didn't though, and it turned into a middling end.

Ubisoft's conference was varying in quality. EA's was pretty bad (that's one thing I can agree with). Nintendo's and Microsoft's were both great with games pretty much constant. Nintendo edges it as my "winner" on sheer numbers overall, but Scalebound and Crackdown were my personal favourites.

More MS bashing, well ok, so is Sony giving you a few quid to bad mouth the competition, you are sounding overly biased - when, as an article writer, you need to be equal and open to all systems. Still dont hear anyone bashing Sony for the last part of their show....TV really? I remember MS doing that and even now people bring that up as a reason to hate MS. Sony and MS were about the same, both had some good titles, and both used third party multi-platform games to advertise their system (MS had a better show). In my opinion both MS and Sony should only be able to show exclusive titles.

I really don't understand what the author's angry about. There's a wide variety of ways someone could treat you like an idiot, but what was it that Microsoft did (I didn't have time to watch the EA conference in full so I can't say anything about them) that made you feel like you were being treated like a simpleton?

Was it that Master Chief wasn't trotted out first? Why does the order of announcements anger you? The entire conference was an hour and a half long so surely it should make no difference where an announcement is placed in the presentation. What's more, Halo got a hefty chunk of screentime - ome of which I felt could have been used for other games, even if I am really excited about the collection and playing Halo 2 multiplayer again.

Or was it that COD was shown first? I'll admit it wasn't the opening for me either, but it's the bestselling franchise on Xbox so I imagine they want it on the stage to assure COD fans.

Or was it that Sunset Overdrive and Forza Horizon 2 were announced? Sunset Overdrive looked amazing and incredibly fun to play. Its style and the fact that its sole focus seems to be on fun is what I miss the most from many modern games. The original Horizon on the other hand was one of the best open world racing games I played so a sequel set in beautiful southern Europe has me interested.

All of the gameplay (aside maybe from the COD demo) at the Microsoft conference looked great to me. The CG trailers didn't do much from me because I prefer seeing some gameplay but that was the same for CG trailers of games in the Sony conference. That said, Little Big Planet 3 left me grinning from ear to ear and I'm happy to see No Man's Sky progressing in such an exciting direction.

All in all though, I really don't understand the purpose of this article. If the games shown didn't tickle your fancy, why does this somehow make you feel like you are being treated like an idiot? And why does a developer diary anger you so much? If you find it boring that's fair enough (I personally like seeing the design process), but I don't get the anger. This piece seems like (as much as I hate the term) "flame bait" to me. Apologies if that wasn't the intention, but I feel there are other issues with E3 that warrant more discussion (although this was article was more of an open letter complaint it seems) than the order of game announcements in a conference or whether or not developer diaries are appropriate use of screen time.

The fact that you liked Sony's Televisi- Err, I mean Games presentation more than Microsoft's tells me a lot. Personally, I care about the games, not about corporate suits coming out and talking about their new BS entertainment stuff, but to each their own I guess.

Hdawger:The fact that you liked Sony's Televisi- Err, I mean Games presentation more than Microsoft's tells me a lot. Personally, I care about the games, not about corporate suits coming out and talking about their new BS entertainment stuff, but to each their own I guess.

Anyone who cares about games is just going to ignore the shitty conferences and find out what was announced that's more than just empty promises and a shitty pre-rendered trailer anyway. E3 in general is a waste of time that can usually be summed up in about a half page summary once it's all over. None of these companies gives a good presentation, so why would anyone waste their time watching?

That's funny, I've been hearing that Microsoft and Nintendo had the strongest conferences. Ah well opinions. I think the articles opinion is very biased though. You're praising Ubisoft for showing the same shit they showed last year. I hear that Sony's was quite weak and they spend too long babbling about TV stuff. The games look great but if anyone can be accused of misreading their audience it's probably them.

I'd also say that many people are massively excited about Sunset Overdrive and given that it's out soon I'd rather see that first up than a promise that Halo will come out sometime in the distant future. Really though you can't open with Halo. It's like opening with AC/DC and leaving the support acts till last. Also, you claim Halo should be first because of it's popularity, Call of Duty is far higher on that list yet you're complaining that they opened with that.

Same goes for EA. If they showed "gameplay" of Mirrors Edge or Mass Effect or Battlefront when it's still in fairly early development and it turns out to be a bullshot, which it would given that they're not out for a year or more, you'd be giving them no end of grief for misleading previews and rightly so. Better this way they show that they're doing something and what we can expect. Also, how exactly do you expect EA to treat us? This E3 wasn't especially bad given their previous record.

Jeez man, that article read like an IGN comment, what the hell got you so worked up?

Sony, EA, MS, and Ubi's pressers were ALL average at best. They did nothing special at best or were complete snores at worse. It seems like they have no real idea what they're doing with E3 pressers. Heck, I'm not even sure if they know WHY they go to E3 anymore other than it being a habit.

I thought MS n Sony did pretty good this year, lots of cool stuff I'm interested in. Heck I even came away from MS' thinking "maybe I should get a One eventually" which is an enormous difference to my previous thoughts of "why would I buy that useless piece of crap?" haha.

As for all the games that were teased and not shown, if a dev doesn't feel they are ready to show their game off then they shouldn't. The vast vast VAST majority of people don't understand how games are made and how they don't start really coming together and looking and being awesome until very late in to development.

You can't show off a game if you don't have convincing footage indicative of the final product. Games are as complex and expensive as they've ever been and so the process of getting them ready to show to the public takes longer than ever.

This article was poor at best, seems like it was written by someone deliberately being angry and cranky for no real reason. Sure lots of dumb stuff has happened this year already but nothing worth getting this mad about, aside from maybe a lack of Last Guardian in any form.

"Coming to consoles first on..." and "The console exclusive debut..." and "first only on..." all of which seemed to me to be code for: "Please guys, please don't pay attention to the devs who say a PC release is happening... guys... guys... honest... it'll be better on our machines... in 720p... and 30fps... guys..."

Also as a European: FUCK SONY!When talking about their new service platforms, new content for PS+ and many other things I couldn't help but notice the constant use of: "North American users..." "Users in North America..." and not to mention the ridiculous mark up on their products for the EU, if I'm paying equivalent to $50 - $150 more for Hardware, Sony better be giving me the same, if not BETTER service then NA.

EA felt very meh, I don't want a numbered Mass Effect, I want smaller stories in that universe that build on that universe, like how about an open world style C-Sec game, I mean the Citadel is meant to be the size of 5 cities. Hardline, I got beta, it's ok, just ok... but nothing they had really set me on fire.

Ubisofts conference felt awkward and unnecessarily forced, although I am looking forward to a new Rainbow Six game, lets be honest what we all want is Ubi to announce the death of Uplay. If Ubi did that, they'd win E3.

And then Nintendo, who as said in the article did their own thing and it was glorious, the Robot Chicken segment, new IP announced, a new Xenoblade, I think people forget how often Nintendo actually put out new IP or Franchises and what we really want from them is a new Character.

For my money, Nintendo stole it, if only because of Sony's conference basically telling me as an EU gamer that I'm not worth their time.

___________

As for the article, it's stated at the top of the page when you read it, it's an editorial, it's just this guys opinion, not a news piece, not the Escapists official stance but just simply an editorial.

Wow, nothing against a critical view of MS after last years' E3 but this? This is an article on the Escapist? Because it sounds more like a troll post of someone that only watched the Sony/Nintendo conference and just commenced the MS bashing from last year for no reason.

"oh, by the way, here's Master Chief" They announced not only a new halo but also the Master Chief collection and spent a substantial part of the conference talking about just that.

"Does anyone really care about what goes into developing Mass Effect or Battlefront?" While I'll admit that I was hoping for a trailer or even some early gameplay from these franchises I think for many it was nice to get even the smallest update since news abut them are pretty rare.

Also I don't see how you can praise Destiny, LBP and Grim Fandango from the Sony conference but have no positive mention for Sunset Overdrive, Crackdown, Scalebound or Fable?

J Tyran:No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

Dear sir,

May I direct you to the word "Editorial" in the title.

When you see that, it refers to an opinion piece that is generally loosely related to current events.

Like in this case.

Yours truly, Me.

ps - As someone who has watched E3 news, i tend to agree with the editorial. M$ gave no real reason to look at their console and EA generally displayed crap.

J Tyran:No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

Dear sir,

May I direct you to the word "Editorial" in the title.

When you see that, it refers to an opinion piece that is generally loosely related to current events.

Like in this case.

Yours truly, Me.

ps - As someone who has watched E3 news, i tend to agree with the editorial. M$ gave no real reason to look at their console and EA generally displayed crap.

Ah well thats okay then, you where not misrepresenting what some people would consider a personal... rant(?) as a news piece after all.

so his argument is basically what, Microsoft and EA we knew what to expect from leaks so you were boring, Sony we didn't know what to expect so we were so SURPRISED and happy?

The actual content of his article points out his bias, he mentions a bunch of smaller games for Sony, but nothing that Microsoft announced that was similar (phantom dust remake comparable to Grim Fandago remake, both niche titles when released that many missed out on). Is LBP really a surprise or a big deal? Everyone knew it was coming like they knew Forza Horizon 2 was coming, it is a hugely popular series of course it was coming.

An exclusive character in diablo is a huge deal? The game will sell like shit on consoles this makes no sense to me.

Also praises Ubisoft for assassin creed footage, sounds excited about coop, but that was shown at Microsofts event...so...

I actually liked Microsoft's conference a lot. I thought Phil Spencer's opening was very classy and made it immediately apparent that the Xbox division was going to be different under his leadership. He didn't talk about consoles sold/shipped, number of people on Xbox Live, or any of that other stuff; he thanked the fans and got right to showing games. Was it spectacular? No. But it did the job well enough to wash the taste of last year's conference away. To use the baseball analogy, they didn't get hit by the pitch, they used a contact swing to put the ball in play and got on base. It's a safe strategy that gives them something to build on. They've got some great titles coming up (Sunset Overdrive is a system seller for me and the new Dead Rising 3 DLC looks like a ton of fun) and I think they did a good job showcasing them.

EA's conference was terrible. The Dragon Age gameplay demo was remarkable in that it was the first time I'd seen a gameplay demo that left me confused about the gameplay. Was I watching one player or several? All the cuts with no context just made it a mess. Everything else was either a bunch of hand-waving or irrelevant which really bothered me because I'm somewhat excited for some of these games. Or at least I wanted to be. The UFC demo should have been easy: get 2 people to play a round. Instead we get a choreographed sequence with Bruce Lee in it which just guarantees that Bruce Lee will win. Way to show off the dynamic nature of the game, EA! The Sims 4 demo ends with a Sim laughing himself to death at a party. I'll leave it at that. I honestly think EA would have been better of just saying, "Come by our booth and play some games!" in a press release.

The Sony conference was definitely they best. They had some what you expected and some nice surprises. They got into the corporate and media player stuff a little but had more than enough content to make up for it. We got to see games get played, trailers that actually got you excited, and some big time announcements (LBP3, Grim Fandango, Far Cry 4 letting you invite people that don't own the game? Epic!). It was a great way to end the day.

Honestly, Sony's presser wasn't all that great either. The only company that kept me glued to the screen wondering what was coming next was Nintendo, and they didn't even host a press conference. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Nintendo is on to something by, instead of catering to E3, they instead cater directly to the fans.

Which makes me wonder if E3 is merely an expensive formality at this point.

Overall I was content to see all the games coming soon, and the games in progress. Who had the best show? Who cares? As many people has stated and restated; it's all about the games. The E3 is just a venue in which for them to parade their wares for all to see. Each of them try to put their best foot forward and display their products in a way to appeal to all. It's fun to see everything showcased like that. If you're too busy trying to figure out who win, you've lost. With the story the writer was disappointed to say the least in what was shown. Everyone expects something different so there's going to be some that feel the same way. I won't like that I want more, but that's the nature of the beast. Some nice betas, alphas, and promos being offered.

I'm calling bullshit on his praise of Sony. Trailers mean nothing. The only thing that matters is gameplay. Sony might as well have just got up onto the podium and farted for all the substance they showed us. Are we so quick to forget how nice the trailer for Dead Island was compared to the actual game?

Nintendo, i like your style! It reflects oneself, fuck the false norm and do what you feel passionate about.Escapist community, your style needs to pull itself out of its arseholes. Most columns are opinion based, no need to press elitist views here. Fuck, everything is an opinion. Cant people read between the lines anymore?